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Need assistance with a paper on Windows XP Home pros and cons

I need to compile a list of 'pros' and 'cons' for Windows XP Home. Hardware supported, software supported, such as games, office productivity, to complete the paper you will need to make a recommendition as to the most appropriate OS to use (home, mobile, office, or commercial)

So far for Windows XP Home cons

No remote desktop which is good for system administrators to remotely connect to a client desktop for troubleshooting.

Is there anything else I can add to the 'pros' list? If so, please let me know then I have to find the cons of Windows XP Home. I havent used Windows XP Home since it came out so it's been a little while. All help is greatly appreciated.

That isn't true at all. Windows XP home edition has remote desktop, the administrative tools, computer management stuff, and also has the event viewer. You should always make your own group policy anyway, come on...

But If you where expecting something like IIS to come pre-installed then you shouldn't have bought the home edition.

That isn't true at all. Windows XP home edition has remote desktop, the administrative tools, computer management stuff, and also has the event viewer. You should always make your own group policy anyway, come on...

But If you where expecting something like IIS to come pre-installed then you shouldn't have bought the home edition.

Absolutely correct! XP Home does support Remote Access, Remote Desktop, and the XP Admin Tools. Errrr...........I am currently typing this on an XP Home machine! and I have just checked that!

PROS:

1. Cost (Cheaper than XP Pro)
2. Stable
3. User friendly (dumb out of the box?)
4. Smaller default installation???
5. Supports Windows "Wireless Zero Configuration" (So does Pro and Media Centre; I don't know about Tablet PC, and I don't think Embedded does, as there would be no reason?

CONS:

1. It is obsolete.
2. Not available as a bulk licence (but that is MS, not OS)...that might depend on country or individual licence terms?

HARDWARE:

The requirements are effectively identical to XP Pro. Both would have problems with drivers for obsolete hardware.........typically less common ones such as scanners and cameras.

The Media Center edition would obviously benefit from upmarket sound and video cards, but XP Home will run them just as well, from a hardware viewpoint.

Basically, if you have a hardware configuration that will run Windows Millenium Edition stable, XP Home will thrive on it!

AFAIK, if it will run on XP Pro, it will run on Home.

Multiprocessor support?

True, but I have never seen a home or even an office client computer that had more than one processor.

Sure, I have seen specialist applications hardware with 2 processors (for example,CAD), but they were uncommon. The reason being that the software used in home and office environments of that era wouldn't even recognise 2 processors, let alone make use of them

I think that you do need to make the point, but please don't go overboard.......if it were the same as XP Pro, it would say "XP Pro" on the box, and the price tag would match.

Whilst you are at it, you might as well mention that it won't support a 64 bit environment either?

SOFTWARE:

1. Major Office Productivity suites (MS, Open Office, etc.......)
2. Pretty much anything that would run on Windows in the early to mid 2000's
3. Games of the era (games are generally processor and graphics card dependent)
4. All major browsers of the era.
5. Nothing 64 bit!

Basically, if suppliers produced something for XP Pro, they did it for Home as well.

As for networks, XP Pro does support server domains (like you need those in the Home???) and IIS. BUT, the IIS support is limited to 1 website and 10 connections.......if you really want a server, you need to buy server software..............MS are not going to lose out on Windows Server sales by giving away too much in their client OSes

0. Home for Home? unless you want an entertainment centre...in which case go for Media Centre.

1. For a laptop, Home is OK and quite common (even I own one). Pro, if you want the advanced network stuff. There is a Tablet PC version especially for stylus operated handheld devices.

2. As an office client, Home will work as it will run the applications. For advanced networking you need Pro. I guess it would depend on the size of the office and your infrastructure. For volume licensing you would need Pro, although that might vary with country?

3. Commercial........not sure what is meant by this?....... For CAD you would go Pro, especially for 64 bit. For embedded systems there is a dedicated XP version, so neither Pro nor Home are suitable. Remember, you can run 32 bit applications on a 64 bit machine, but you need 64 bit to support RAM above ~3.2GB, and some commercial apps need a lot of RAM!

Sorry for the late response. I just wanted to say 'Thank you everyone,' for the positive replys. Nihil, you have helped me out a lot and it is greatly appreciated.

Just for the record;

Nice nihil

I know where to come when I need my homework done for me

MLF

I didn't come here to get my "homework done for me" I came here to get opinions / ideas of people who know a lot more informative on computer than I am. And I just wanted there opinion. Why? Because the people here know there stuff.

I didn't come here to get my "homework done for me" I came here to get opinions / ideas of people who know a lot more informative on computer than I am. And I just wanted there opinion. Why? Because the people here know there stuff.

Sorry if I came across as Oh I only come here for homework, no way.

I honestly do not think you need to worry about such thoughts. One of the nice things I have come across here on AO over the past years is that people on AO are really willing to help. They enjoy helping others in need as long as its NOT for malicious purposes.

Although many times the responses or opinions differ greatly, I would say its a good thing. The more different opinions, the more options and choices since often there is way more than one solution or approach to a specific problem.

You are very welcome; I just thought you were looking for a few first hand experiences and thoughts. Sure, you could Google all the "facts" but the other angle is how people perceive these "facts"?

I had been building PCs for several years before XP came out. Back then it was simple: you put 9x on home machines and NT on business ones.

Then MS came out with their XP product line, and you had to chose between two variants of what was essentially the same thing? (I never had anything to do with Tablet PC, Media Centre or Embedded Systems).

I must admit that I always went for XP pro, because it sounded a bit more "flash" and at my level there was very little difference in the price. Over here you usually find that "Home" is on an OEM machine (Dell, HP etc). My IBM Thinkpad has XP Home on it, for example.

I guess the price difference for the OEM boys was much larger? remember that the "Millennium Bug" scam was mostly because manufacturers used a two digit date CMOS RTC and saved about $0.50 per unit.

Anyways, you still have to write the paper............so I don't think that I actually did anyone's homework for them